Coralied
by Woodswolf
Summary: Sometimes the past comes back to get you...  Set seven years after Coraline.  *Some tiny movie-verse details, seek and find*
1. Prologue

_(A/N):Hello everyone!**  
><strong>This story, as you may have noticed, is my first. Some say that people should be especially encouraging and use constructive criticism a lot with newbies - gentle reviews, you know._

_Don't bother. I will take what I learn from the reviews to revise my chapters, as I have the whole story done, already. I'm taking what I learn from what you think so far to expand and make more sense of things later on._

* * *

><p>PROLOGUE: A TALE TOLD BY EVIL<p>

I'm an Exterminator.

Yep. Me.

My job. Is. To kill. Little. Rejected. Brats.

Simple enough?

Good.

Anyway, this job has been in my family for generations. I got it passed to me by my mother, who got it passed to her by her mother... a long series of generations.

It's a huge job... you have to be very intelligent to repeatedly kill people and prevent them from escaping, and then storing them so that the World of the Dead won't get involved.

There are many stages to it... I'll give you examples from my own experience for explanation.

The first part of the job is to receive a Showing (this usually happens while the Victim of the previous cycle is still living, but their fate is determined; however, it is completely random when a Showing is received). Showings tell me a few things: the name and age of the person, their attitude toward life, an extensive list of likes and dislikes... you get the picture.

For example, I have seen four Showings. Three girls and a boy. All between the ages of nine and eleven. All hated their lives at the time I would come to intercept them.

The second part is to set the trap. There are a few manipulations that can be used without overusing the Magic of the Door: you can twist, copy, and create (but this is very limited and may only be used in some small instances). You have to see most of the Real World before you can duplicate and improve it; however, sometimes a Showing will give you a bit more information.

An example for this? You're reading this. A short creation of my mind put down by my scribe, my Narrator. But they may word it as they like. Sure, she will eventually change Masters. But for now, she is mine, and I may say what I like.

The third part is to wait for them to come. They spring the trap (The Showing for the next cycle also comes around this stage). Fortunately, you can speed up time (using the Magic) so that it is a lot less time in between cycles (otherwise I could have been waiting upwards of eighty years for some of them).

That's the easiest stage: They come in. I leave no way out (and no desire to get out). And the one time one did... well, I have my ways.

The fourth is to kill. One day they wake up into nonbeing. That is the day I get my reward, and so does the world: the brat is gone, to the relief of many, and I get something else to keep me busy, a new obsession. I won't bother with a stupid example for this one. There are people watching my Narrator's back.

But unfortunately for me, it just so happened that I was the 28th generation. The Unlucky. Four and seven are luck for humans, yes. But not for me. No, not at all. Hunting a being makes their 'lucky' your 'unlucky'.

This made sure that I was going to lose. Destined by fate to do so, no matter how long it took.

Let's start with what happened.

My first three Showings told me that they would warn a danger to me of my trap-world. I hunted down and killed them. Easily.

My fourth Showing told me that they would see me for who I truly am, and kill my empire. My family's empire. Millions of years, millions of deaths. I knew I must kill her.

I set up the trap; I made it as beautiful and eccentric as I dared. I designed it so that the Man with Everything would come and never leave. I made it so that it could all turn killing with the push of a button (or a manipulation of the mind, in my case).

But the Magic was stretching, growing weak. So I made it so that the woods surrounding the area would slowly melt into the empty mist that is this place. Raw creation, ready to be molded. I could not include the Well, which could have been a good quick-kill trap... It was one of the worst mistakes of my life, if not the worst. I wanted the pride of it. Maybe I will win with pride someday...

Anyway, I brought her in. And then I let her stew. But she resisted. And escaped. And when I stole for her things that were subtly beautiful, she came back.

But when I locked her with the ghosts... I realized.

I was doing the thing that all evil villans do.

I was trying to prevent something from happening.

And by doing that, I was making it happen.

I still fought hard. Harder than hard. She cheated.

Sure, I was going to, too... but that's not the point.

I still fought. I vowed my revenge from a pact we had made. I sent my right hand out to do my bidding. Get the Key, slit her throat, bring her back. I said it in the wrong order.

I failed again.

But I will not fail. Now I wait, wait for her to leave, to go somewhere else and never return to the scene of her nightmares -

And then I will move, too.

And I will find her.

And I will win.

* * *

><p><em>(AN):__ Review, please!_

_Update 12/28/11: I've decided to continue._

_Thank you._


	2. Disappearances

_(A/N): I have received motivation from knowing that a few people to have this finished. Thank you, and you know who you are :)_

_Plus, for self-proclaimed fans of this, updates will be faster now. I need to fix some things to make them make sense, though. I want to change a bit of the last chapter...  
><em>

BOOK ONE: MEMORY LANE

CHAPTER ONE: DISAPPEARANCE

I looked up from my newspaper to find a man I didn't know sitting across the coffee shop. He was staring at me again, with his bright green eyes. He had been all day.

I'd been thinking about going over and asking what his problem was. But he came over for me. He gestured to the chair. I nodded, letting my black hair make a curtain around my face, and he sat. He looked like he was in his late twenties to mid-thirties.

"Have you seen the news?" he asked.

I held up my copy of the _New York Times_. "You should know that I've been reading all day."

He smiled sheepishly, and changed the subject. "Did you hear about the disappearance of the small town in England recently? It's really strange."

"No. What happened?"

"Well, every man-made thing within a five mile radius of this one place… just disappeared. No windstorm, and everything natural remained. So there goes the theory that they went to Oz," he laughed. His blond hair flopped a bit as he laughed. "My name's Charles, by the way."

I held out my hand. "Hi, Charles," I said. Something about him reminded me of… and then I was shaking and sobbing.

I had developed a minor case of depression around seven years ago. It hurt me to remember some… traumatic events in my life. It wasn't as bad as it was before, though...

Charles put his hand on mine and waited until I stopped crying. I still had shivers, though. It was still scaring me... Memories… I shuddered.

Charles looked at me with pity. "Did you know someone there?" he asked. "In the town?"

"What disappeared?"

"Well, there were a few houses… an old barn… some apartment building, I think… Fortunately there were only a few people in the radius at the time, so there were few casualties. They're not even sure if they died, really. They're all just gone."

"Who died? Please!"

"Let's see…" Charles opened his newspaper and flipped by a few pages. "Two women in their eighties, an old man in his nineties, and a couple in their forties, according to this. The old man has quite a strange name… probably a misprint. Did you know a 'Bobinsky' by any chance?"

I was sobbing again. No shaking, this time. But I knew who all of them were. My mother and father had stayed in England while I came to America for college. And then Misses Spink and Forcible, and Mister Bobo…

All dead.

"It's okay," Charles was saying. "It's okay."

I controlled my crying, to speak. "I knew all of them. We moved there when I was eleven. I came to America for college, and now… they're all dead." I didn't start crying this time. I let the words out slowly and quietly, and in my mind I was cursing the one who was behind it, or at least, who I thought was. I wouldn't let myself think of… her… as anything more than the subject of my cursing.

"You're scared of that place."

"Yes." It was a fact.

"You might be interested in this, then. I'm gathering an investigation team to work on this case. I could take you in for an interview, if you wish. Or we could talk here. I just want to see what you know about this from personal experience.

"So… will you talk to me?" Charles asked. He already knew my answer.

"Yes."

_(A/N): I think I might add a little dedication to this... maybe, at the end. But I don't know... depends._

_Hopefully my desire expressed over that sad turkey's wishbone is gonna happen..._

_Please review!  
><em>


	3. Interview

_(A/N): It's four-oh-three AM, and I've run downstairs just waiting to post this. Plus, I have a flipping Cheshire Cat smile on my face._

_Hopefully I have kept sanity in your minds?_

_Sorry. I've just gained new motivation, and I want to get this over with before it flees this insane creation of my mind that doesn't make any sense at all._

_Continue on, brave reader._

CHAPTER TWO: INTERVIEW

"Tell me… what you experienced there. You seem to know something."

Charles seemed to be satisfied that I had answered yes. He acted like he thought I would refuse, but I saw that he knew I would accept. He had a small grin showing a few of his teeth.

"It's a long story," I said. "And I don't want to talk about it…" I shivered. I just stared at his coat. I saw two black buttons, staring and dead...

I looked away.

"Well, then," he answered. "Let's try something easier. You haven't told me your name yet."

I told him my name.

"Well, please tell me if you feel scared by this. But I know far more about you than you might think."

I wasn't scared. Yet. I was getting anxious.

"Okay, then. I know a bit about your past. Trivia, you could say… but it is not trivial.

"During a cold, wet summer around seven years ago, you called the police to report a kidnapping."

I gasped. "Please don't give me specifics. Please."

"I won't," he answered.

"The police officer who answered you was my father. I called him the next day, just to check up on things, see how he was. I was in America at the time.

"He said that just last night he had some kid call him saying that their parents were kidnapped by some trans-dimensional creep and taken to an alternate universe behind a mirror. We both laughed our heads off. And then he asked me how I was. I never thought of it until the disappearance.

"Then I realized that there was a connection. You made this call. And then, seven years later when you leave, all of a sudden that section of England suddenly has a population of zero. Sure, it was low to begin with. But four people disappeared, and all were connected to you.

"I started researching. I realized that there had been previous disappearances, going back as far as the eleven hundreds. Three children, total. All three disappeared in the same building.

"I saw the connection. And I know that you know that."

He concluded completely straight-faced, after the big grins he had earlier, talking about my phone call.

"I have one more question, before I'll let you back to your reading," he said, his tone still serious.

"What's that?"

He paused. I could see him wording his question carefully. Charles was really thinking.

"Why are you scared?"

_(A/N): Hehehe... Both of them know more than they're letting on, aren't they?_

_I'm sorry, but I don't have any skeleton keys to let me into any random character's head. There's only one way out of this one's, and only one way into another one's. Take that _any_ way you like._

_Case in point, we'll be sticking with the girl's head for now, 'kk'?_


	4. Fear and Loneliness

_(A/N): This is one of the first 'psychic drabble' chapters in here. Note chapters. I would consider the prologue and epilogue to be psychic drabbles as well. So, if you like the ones with more action and dialogue, you're going to have to be a bit disappointed._

_If you like to see hints of my in-depth character analyses, however (I have done VERY in-depth for the whole book and movie and connections I find...), this chapter will please you._

CHAPTER THREE: FEAR AND LONELINESS

I could not tell him. He didn't know and experience the horror, the pain, the strangeness. He didn't experience the joy and the sadness.

He didn't see three dead children in a closet, and know that they were ghosts, and that they had a sad existence, and that they had been trapped and killed and turned to nothing.

He didn't go to the world with no sun.

He couldn't, wouldn't, and shouldn't understand.

Because he didn't know her love. He didn't know her hate. He didn't know her.

But I had to tell him.

So I made it simple.

"Fear and loneliness," I said. It was the truth, in the purest form; she was not something to be feared.

But her creation was. Her power could create beauty... and evil. I shivered again.

Charles stared off through the window, across the street. It seemed like he was focused on a transmission from the future, or the past; he was receiving signals that I could not hear.

I probably didn't want to hear them, either.

"Should I trust you."

It was not a question. He was waiting for me to answer.

After a lot of thinking, I knew.

"I could tell you more, if I knew you better. But what I said was the absolute truth."

There was another pause; this one was longer than before. Then, finally, Charles pulled out a pen, and took a napkin from the table. He wrote something down on the napkin. His handwriting was a bit messy.

"My phone number and address. Call me up if you want to tell me something. And if you'll be of any use to us, I'll call you. But you'll have to call me first," Charles said jokingly. I smiled a small smile. He was very kind.

"Thank you. I'll call soon," I said, and left the coffee shop. I looked back and found him and laughing to himself as he picked up my copy of the _New York Times_.

_(A/N): Sorry for this short little chapter! All of the chapters pretty much are less than 1000 words from here on out. I think this is the shortest..._


	5. Information

_(A/N): What's this? Two chapters in one day?_

_o.O_

_Yes, yes, I forgot to post yesterday._

_(Shut up, conscience!)_

CHAPTER FOUR: INFORMATION

When I got back to my apartment, I thought about what I was going to tell him.

I took the napkin out of my bag, and picked up my cell phone. I'd left it back at my apartment to charge. The battery had died in the night.

I entered Charles' number slowly, thinking only about the numbers, one at a time. I was going to start crying if I thought about anything other than that. I didn't like to cry. It reminded me of...

No. I wouldn't let myself do it yet. One more number.

I didn't press the call button after I entered it. I set it down on the small table.

I lay down on my bed and let my memories wash over me.

I slowly worked my way through the two weeks worth of dreams and nightmares, horror and sadness.

It took over three hours.

I didn't scream, for the first time. I had a reason to go through with it. I needed information. It was for Charles. That kept me from screaming, but the tears still came.

The call came up several times. I had to remind myself of Charles. Know it was for him.

When it was done, my face was sticky from the tears. But I knew what I would say.

I pressed the call button on my cell phone. On the fifth ring it sent me to the answering machine. I could almost see him, standing there, wondering if it was me, and letting it reach the answering machine so that he would be able to reexamine it later, look for lies and truths, tactics and strategies. I began to speak.

"The one in charge of the disappearances is the Other Mother - or, more appropriately, the Beldam.

"Curiosity killed the cat. That's how she works. I went through a small door, wondering and curious. She showed me devotion. The Other World was almost like the Real World... but it had a few important differences.

"The first thing is that everyone and everything has buttons for eyes. It's very strange. I don't know why she chose that. For satisfaction? To make it seem more like a dream? I don't know. I don't want to know, either.

"She loved me. She loved the others, too, the ones that came before. But she got bored. So she killed them. She kept them - she just didn't love them anymore.

"She has powers that can't... they can't be understood. She created a world from scratch. She took my parents.

"I went again to retrieve them. I played a game and won by cheating. She was cheating, too. I saw through her act.

"I know that she did this... she made the place disappear. I think she still wants me, for some reason. And I don't know why. She just did."

I heard a click on the other end of the line, like the phone was being picked up. Charles spoke.

"I couldn't answer the phone... you understand why, right?" he asked.

"Yes," I answered.

There was a pause. Then he spoke again.

He paused. "You forgot your newspaper," he said finally. I could tell he was smiling, something about his tone. "I can give it back to you... down the block from the coffee shop where we met, there's my work. It's an old, gray building with two glass double doors in the front. Could you meet me out in front of it tomorrow at nine?"

"Yes. Down a block from the coffee shop, right?"

"Yes," he said. "You're fit for this job. Welcome to the team."

_(A/N): Interesting..._

_(SHUT **UP,** CONSCIENCE!)_


	6. New Job

_(A/N): Happy New Year! XD_

_I have an amusing story!_

_Yesterday I went to a New Years party and stayed overnight with my friend. Well, today at church, I had to do the readings, so I went to church._

_Guess what? My parents didn't even bother to show up at church!_

_~ EPIC FAIL ~_

_Read on, now!_

CHAPTER FIVE: NEW JOB

I showed up in front of the gray building at five to nine the next day. It looked like an old converted doctor's office or something. Maybe a ballet studio? I couldn't tell.

There were other people waiting in front of the building. They all looked like they were computer geeks, just out of college. One was carrying a few file folders. All of the folders only had one or two papers in them.

It looked like a really sad investigation team. One with too little budget and information. I was really out of place. The others were glancing at me every now and again.

Charles came around the corner at three after nine. He ran to the door and explained that he forgot his phone. He had no phone, only a little flash drive – and a newspaper.

"You really should get us keys, Charles," one of them said. He had dark hair and dark eyes, and looked the oldest in the bunch. He had a playfully angry expression on his face, like he was about to tell a bad joke. "It's not like we can walk through walls." He grinned slightly.

"I know, James..." Charles replied. "The day you show me you can walk through _glass_ I'll give you some keys."

"Touche," James replied.

Charles unlocked the door, and everyone walked in and set their stuff down on a variety of small desks. They looked up at Charles when they appeared to have everything organized. I stood off to the side. I didn't want to be stared at.

"Gentlemen," he announced formally. "We have a new lead." He held up the flash drive, and everyone stared at it. They looked at it like it was enough money to bail out a country, or have a three-week vacation on Mars.

I knew what it had on it: a recording of last night's phone call.

"I'm going to go and analyze this in the back room. Push papers and spread rumors for a little while. Have fun," he finished, chuckling slightly.

He walked across the room and whispered in the ear of a boy with curly brown hair.

Then he stood up and walked over to a door I hadn't noticed before. He signaled for me to come with his newspaper hand. I walked across the room quietly and carefully. Two of them were already arguing over something on a sheet of paper, and the curly-haired boy was telling three others about what he'd been whispered. I walked into the back room without any of them looking up. Charles then shut the door behind me.

"I want you to tell me how much you want me to tell them immediately," he said. "You've had to tell your story to one almost absolute stranger already, so I don't want you to have to spill all the beans again. That would be unfair of me to do that to you."

He paused, waiting for my reply.

"Tell all of it."

Charles' eyes got big at what I said. "Really?"

"Yes. As long as you don't mention that I was the one you got the information from," I told him. "I just don't want to be stared at." I shuddered a bit. I'd been stared at enough to last a lifetime.

Charles grinned. "I think I'll be able to come up with a decent fib."

He told me how we might want to just sit in here for a little while, as usually it takes him about five to eight minutes to conduct a short analysis. "Don't worry," he said. "I'm working on my fib. You can tell them when you're comfortable with them."

Around ten minutes later they left the back room. The curly haired one and his followers were arguing over something ("I heard his whisper! It sounded something like 'Follow the blood to the edge of something'!") and the two who had been arguing over a paper were listening in on their conversation and occasionally asking questions. Charles cleared his throat and they looked up at him.

"You're probably wondering who she is," Charles announced. They looked at me, and acted all innocent, like they hadn't been staring at me earlier while we were waiting.

"She's an undercover agent."

Whispering broke out at the table. It quickly died down, however. They wanted to hear what he had to say. Eager to hear it.

"She gathered this," he held up the flash drive, "from a reliable source; however, they wished to remain anonymous to protect their identity. And from us assaulting them with questions."

Everyone laughed. Even I laughed a little bit. He was doing a good job with this.

He continued, going through everything I had explained in the call. He also said a little bit from our conversation yesterday (complaining on my behalf that 'my recorder ran out of disk space' and thus it wasn't on the disk). He was quite a convincing liar. I was almost beginning to believe the charade.

After the announcement was over, he introduced me to everyone. There were six in all: James, Fred, Drake, Mark, Alex, and Will. Will was the curly-haired guy Charlie whispered to earlier.

It was quite an impressive team. They didn't really look like unapproachable jerks now that I knew who they were... a bit. Names were trivial things (according to a probably-dead friend), but they gained trust.

After I'd talked with the boys for a while (James and Will seemed like the leaders), Charles came up to me.

"Let me show you what you'll be doing."

_(A/N): Here something completely irrelevant to this that I found quite interesting that I found out a while ago!_

_**LIN** IS A **WEASEL**._

_Thank you, thank you very much. I'll be signing autographs at the White House in three hours. Thank you again. No, thank - Nice hair! Thank you..._

_*ends Elvis-for-President moment*_


	7. Weather Report

_(A/N): Well, I'm almost finished! Yes!_

_I'll start posting it after I finish posting this one..._

_Hehehehe..._

CHAPTER SIX: WEATHER REPORT

Charles pulled a laptop out from underneath the table, and logged in for me.

"The password is townhunt, but I don't want the others to know that," he whispered to me, smiling.

Once the computer had logged on, he opened a program with a map of the United States and various colors on it, ranging from a dark purplish color to a blood red. I assumed it was some sort of weather map.

"If what you told me is true," he whispered, "then my theory has a really good chance of working. You can see the position of the laptop right here."

He pointed at the screen: there was a small black dot right over his fingernail.

"My theory is that we're looking, and waiting, for there to be a perfectly circular region of this color," he pointed to the blood red, "surrounded by a lighter color other than this orange. This is unnatural and impossible, but I saved a screenshot of what I saw a few days with the disappearance."

He pulled up an image on Paint: this time it was an image of England instead of America, but it had the same sort of colors.

There was a circle of sky blue, a perfect circle. It was surrounded by a yellow-green. A very small circle, but still obviously unnatural.

"My guess is that the opposite will happen with this: it will be the red color, for the most amount of heat. I'm not absolutely sure, but... if I'm right, you'll be the one to see it," Charles continued.

I did what he said. I came in every morning and watched for a perfect circle to form anywhere. Nothing happened for weeks.

Then, one day, when I was fooling around with the program, somehow I zoomed in closer to the relative area where we were.

I saw a small, blood-red circle.

And I knew where we would go.

_(A/N): Woo! End of the first book/section!_

_Only four more chapters left and the epilogue! Yay!_


	8. Investigation

_(A/N): If you're reading this, and it's 1/2/12, then I decided to bail on the one chapter a day policy I've been having._

_If not, then I haven't, and you have to wait another day to read the end. Ha ha. Loser._

_Why have I decided on this drastic change? I've finished the sequel, so there's no race-against-time-to-get-it-done-so-that-I-can-start-posting-it-right-after-I-finish-posting-this-one. I only have to split it up into different documents now._

_SO HA! HA HA HA. Ha ha ha. Ha ha. Ha. Heh... uh..._

BOOK TWO: BLOOD AND DEATH

CHAPTER SEVEN: INVESTIGATION

"Is this it?" he asked. His green eyes were looking at the old building – it was at least a few hundred years old, as far as I could tell. Like it would still have dumbwaiters and old coats and…

"I can sense her nearby," I said, letting the train of thought break. The memories threatened to break through the dam I had created. I tried to think about something else. I thought about where we were, what I was doing alone here with Charles.

We were here to find out the truth about the Disappearance.

And, as we learned from our little research, save a life. Or try to, anyway.

We were looking at the place we would have to raid… and it was wet, and cold, and not very summer-like…

I wasn't sure what to think of it all… but I had a hunch.

And if I had to, I would act on it.

It couldn't be so bad, right?

Right?...

"We should continue on the trail," he said. He was keeping his 'anonymous lost hikers' character. So I also responded, in character.

"Yeah. How far was it to the next 'campsite'?"

"Hmm…" Charles said, checking his 'prop' – a map that had the location of our temporary headquarters and where we would meet up with Alex and Drake. It also had the map of the route we were going to be following on the raid. He was drawing it in slowly with a red Sharpie as we checked the terrain. "It looks like it's about half a mile."

"Good to know."

We continued walking, and he continued sketching on the map. After about another half-hour we met up with them in an abandoned parking lot.

"Not a very pretty place for a walk," I commented. Alex and Drake laughed. Drake drove, with Alex in the passenger seat, laughing occasionally over some 'had to be there' joke.

While they were messing around, I looked at the map. The place was in the middle of nowhere, really. The closest town was two miles – as the crow flies.

I had to admit it to myself.

But I didn't.

And so, as we drove, I thought about something else.

Ignorance is bliss.

_(A/N): Now you have to look, to see if the next chapter comes in the next hour! HA HA HA! HA HA HA! I HAVE CURSED YOU TO REFRESH THIS PAGE FOREVER! HA HA HA!_

_Another reason I've posted two on the same day: I finished another oneshot, _To the Girl of Michigan_, in less than an hour. It's a series of rabid letters that I've had eating my skull for weeks. So, be happy that they're complete, and being uploaded, and that this is posted._

_I hate that 15-doc limit. It's sooo annoying right now. But I know why it's there._


	9. Self Guided Tour

(A/N): insert introduction

insert witty slogan/funny story

insert bad punchline

insert insane laughing

CHAPTER EIGHT: SELF-GUIDED TOUR

That night, we practiced the route: Drake and Alex stayed behind in the truck while the rest of us stuck to the route. I was still keeping up some of my 'agent' charade, so I had to refer to myself in the third person a lot.

When we got to the house, Fred and Mark got to have lots of fun. They had professional lock-picking tools at their disposal, and they knew how to use them. The first door we tried was the one – I could already tell before we went in. I could tell it was in there – somewhere.

"The source said that it was in a downstairs room… They also said that we might notice a musty smell coming from a room… Check those places first," I said. James and the others nodded.

After walking through a couple random rooms of my choosing, I walked into a room on the right side of the hall – nothing much in there, after walking around for a few minutes, checking everywhere. A second doorway exited along the same hallway, but there was no smell here. Not as much presence.

Not as much of the impending-doom feeling, either.

I walked out the other doorway, slowly… the floorboards were a bit creaky. I signaled to Charles that nothing was in there. Dawn was almost breaking. It was around five AM. We would need to go soon.

Then I felt it. The presence. The fear. It was near here.

I walked into the room across the hall.

I saw it. Wooden. No handle, just a keyhole.

No key.

But it was open.

I didn't think about what was inside.

Sunlight filtered into the room. It was time to go.

I wasn't sure how long we had.

Maybe – hopefully – we would catch it before it was too late.

But I wasn't letting myself know something that I did, deep inside.

(A/N): insert another funny story

insert witty slogan


	10. Save the Child

_(A/N): The world hates cheaters._

_But the cheaters don't care. 'Cuz they're part of the world, too._

CHAPTER NINE: SAVE THE CHILD

We made it back to the van by five thirty and took off, back to our temporary headquarters. It was a hotel – Charles had rented the penthouse for a few days (He had inherited a large amount of money from a grandfather, but could only keep it if he put it to use 'creating good for the world'). It was nice, but not familiar.

On the drive back Alex and Drake demanded to know everything about what happened during the hour we were there. Charles had told them that they found the entry point and knew that the child had at least had discovered the door (I had told Charles a bit more about the situation when we came here).

It was a long day. We strategized and planned, but each one had drawbacks. I already knew that split-second decisions relying on instinct and luck (more luck than instinct) were more likely to be successful.

But I feared, because I knew something I wouldn't admit to myself.

Night fell, softly. A slow, burning (and possibly painful?) death to the sun. A sacrifice had to be made for the moon to live for another night.

Soon we were driving.

I was out of it, disoriented.

I couldn't focus.

I knew what I was going to do, but I didn't consciously know.

I tried to think.

I tried to see it.

The more I tried, the more I failed.

We were there.

Walking.

Something old and slow followed.

I knew his name.

I could not speak it.

We were there.

I saw her.

I saw the child.

I snapped back into reality. The fear was eating me from inside.

I saw the blackness... two deep, dark chasms. Two manhole covers. I couldn't think what they were.

Long, crimson nails. Bloody bone knives.

One hand. She did not restore it, purposefully. I alone knew why.

"Mother."

It was an expression of fear. And yet, at the same time, joy. Someone who loved me in a strange way was still alive.

But I did not love her.

My love belonged to someone else.

I crossed to her.

"Let them go," I said, looking at her.

"And what in return?" she asked. A slight smile spread across her face.

"I cheated," I said.

The smile broadened.

"So why should I play fair?" she asked. She absentmindedly twisted one lock of her sea-serpent hair. No matter how distracted she looked, I could tell she was listening eagerly.

"Because I know I can't win the game by cheating."

She laughed.

"Make them go now, and hold the deal you speak of, and I will let them go."

_(A/N): Lock two cheaters in a room, with no food and no water, for a week._

_Sounds like a lead-in to a bad joke, eh?_


	11. Bloody Tears

_(A/N):_ _(I've decided to bail on this whole waiting game, so you should now see that this story is complete! Yay! Anyway, back to the depressing A/N that I wrote up earlier!)  
><em>

_Death comes eventually. That doesn't mean we can't put it off for as long as we can. That doesn't mean that we won't be able to live forever, eventually._

_Maybe death will fade away, become no more than a distant concept in the distant future..._

_But it probably won't. Because there are people who would love to live forever, and there are people that would be forever against it._

_And death can't fade if there's someone to take._

CHAPTER TEN: BLOODY TEARS

The passageway was no longer a connection - it was a barrier. Already the room felt divided - me and the Beldam, and them. The child. Will. James.

Charles.

I watched them go – James and Will, the unknown girl. Charles went last, giving me one last glance, his blond hair flattened and dead, his green eyes saddened. I watched them lock the door. I listened to them leave.

There was no probability, no chance for any more survivors. I committed myself to the facts.

It was a trade.

This was what I'd hidden from myself.

A single tear rolled down my cheek. A crimson knife cut me a half an inch below it. No pain. I felt the tear mix with my blood and fall.

In that tear, I hid my love. She would not have it. She would not take what belonged to someone else.

I turned away from the door.

"There are two things in my life I'm not satisfied with," I began.

"What's that?" the Beldam asked.

"The first," I continued, "was that I broke a promise.

"I broke a promise to myself I made many years ago. I promised I would never return, never see you again.

"The second," I said, "was that I told a lie."

"To who?" she asked. It was just her and me.

"To Charles. I never told him I loved him."

She was smiling. Happy wasn't a strong enough word to describe the emotion coming off of her.

I forced myself to look her in her - my thoughts stumbled over the awful word - button eyes.

Keeping my voice straight, I asked the Other Mother one question.

"Are you happy, Mother?"

She flashed me a grin, an evil grin, one that I hoped I would have never seen again.

_Memories..._

"Satisfied is a better word for it."

And then there was darkness. Then...

_Pain._

**_Endless pain._**

Screaming.

_**Laughter.**_

_Light._

**Darkness.**

_Past._

**Present.**

Future.

_Confusion._

_**Understanding.**_

**Life.**

Death.

_Names._

**Blood.**

Sweat.

_Tears._

**It.**

Was.

_All._

_**Gone.**_

...

_(A/N): Death takes you, death takes me_

_Death takes us all, one by one, you see_

_But if you ever know of me_

_I ask you to please show of me_

_For once I'm struck, for once I'm out_

_I will have not a time to pout_

_As I'll be away from all without_

_Ever knowing how or about_

_We'll all die once, we'll all die twice_

_We'll all make our lives very nice_

_But no matter what we might, the mice_

_Will take all the exits, leave ice_

_But now I fade, but now I flee_

_But now I'm gone, but now I see_

_But now I cry, but now I be_

_But now I love, but now I'm me_

_i'll  
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_fade_

_away_

_from_

_life_

_..._


	12. Epilogue

_(A/N): Yes, it's true. You've reached the epilogue. Several thousand words later, you're here, reading the Beldam's Last Will and Testament._

_Well, not really, but it's the last stuff from her POV._

EPILOGUE: TWO WORDS

So now it comes down to my final piece.

I like playing with my Narrator too much. She's in a different place now, watched by different people, and I am dictating this epilogue to her. The funny thing is that she knew what I would say here before she knew how the story would end. She's jumping back and forth between me and – the _other_ person right now.

Maybe I'm happy, by the outcome I already knew about. But maybe I also know that... well, maybe sometime in the far future, it won't work out too well. Maybe I will fail.

But it will be a long time before that. I will make her - MY child - as miserable as I can, for the time being. Because she's mine. I can do what I want with her.

The day I received my fifth Showing was the happiest day in my long life.

Someone from her life was correct - I do hate her. Now, and then, when he had said it. But a child has to come running back to Mommy eventually. And then the child is punished.

My love is an illusion. I pretend to. I love them only in the fact that in the end they can be mine. And they will.

I know I don't have much time left with my Narrator.

But... I love getting the last words.

And the last words are:

I win.

_(A/N): I'm sorry to have to spoil your happy ending and final statement, Beldam, but they're not quite the last words. No. That's for **me**._

_Feel jealous. Yes. Your time will come again... someday. Tomorrow. Wait 24 hours or so. And a few hours more than that. Coraleyes is coming soon, but your role in it isn't coming THAT soon..._

_I'll kill you off soon enough.  
><em>

_Oh, but what's the point of that crazy dream? You're one of the loose ends that must be tied up. And it's a lot more fun to make the main character miserable than it is to make the villain, because the villain is** always** miserable in the end.  
><em>

_Speaking of audience, I also have to thank a few people for sticking by me through this whole fancy fiasco._

_I'd like to thank, in no particular order:_

_**Marquis Carabas** for giving support,  
><em>

_**Sonosublime** for *FacebookCopyrightMove*ing this (AKA: Liking),  
><em>

_ for being a first subscriber,  
><em>

_**My Brain**, for inspiring me with ideas for two separate tales and finding a way to bind them together,_

_And, finally, **Anyone Who Reads This In The Future**, because you're just epic. XD  
><em>


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